The New Stack Podcast

In this episode, Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative, discusses the need for a new definition as AI differs significantly from open source software. The complexity arises from the unique nature of AI, particularly large language models and transformers, which challenge traditional copyright frameworks. Maffulli emphasizes the urgency of establishing a definition for open source AI and discusses an ongoing effort to release a set of principles by the year's end.The concept of "open" in the context of AI is undergoing a significant transformation, reminiscent of the early days of open source. The recent upheaval at OpenAI, resulting in the removal of CEO Sam Altman, reflects a profound shift in the technology community, prompting a reconsideration of the definition of "open" in the realm of AI.The conversation highlights the parallels between the current AI debate and the early days of software development, emphasizing the necessity for a cohesive approach to navigate the evolving landscape. Altman's ousting underscores a clash of belief systems within OpenAI, with a "safetyist" community advocating caution and transparency, while Altman leans towards experimentation. The historical significance of open source, with a focus on trust preservation over technical superiority, serves as a guide for defining "open" and "AI" in a rapidly changing environment.Learn more from The New Stack about AI and Open Source:Artificial Intelligence News, Analysis, and ResourcesOpen Source Development Threatened in EuropeThe AI Engineer Foundation: Open Source for the Future of AI

DockerCon showcased a commitment to enhancing the developer experience, with a particular focus on addressing the challenge of debugging containers in Kubernetes. The newly launched Docker Debug offers a language-independent toolbox for debugging both local and remote containerized applications.By abstracting Kubernetes concepts like pods and namespaces, Docker aims to simplify debugging processes and shift the focus from container layers to the application itself. Our guest, Docker Principal Engineer Ivan Pedrazas, emphasized the need to eliminate unnecessary complexities in debugging, especially in the context of Kubernetes, where developers grapple with unfamiliar concerns exposed by the API.Another Docker project, Tape, simplifies deployment by consolidating Kubernetes artifacts into a single package, streamlining the process for developers. The ultimate goal is to facilitate debugging of slim containers with minimal dependencies, optimizing security and user experience in Kubernetes development.While progress is being made, bridging the gap between developer practices and platform engineering expectations remains an ongoing challenge.Learn more from The New Stack about Kubernetes and Docker:Kubernetes Overview, News, and TrendsDocker Rolls out 3 Tools to Speed and Ease DevelopmentWill GenAI Take Jobs? No, Says Docker CEO

Florian Valeye, a data engineer at Back Market, discusses the evolving landscape of data engineering, focusing on Delta Lake. He explains how Delta Lake addresses challenges of data warehouses and data lakes, emphasizing asset transactions and scalability. Valeye's involvement with Delta Lake at Back Market optimized ETL processes and improved communication between data scientists and engineers. He also discusses his journey with Rust programming language and the future evolution of Delta Lake.

Liam Crilly, Senior Director of Product Management at NGINX, discusses the potential of WebAssembly and its promise of universal portability. WebAssembly is more mature on the client side, lacking sufficient runtimes and toolchains on the server side. Despite the need for a virtual machine, WebAssembly provides near-native compute performance through additional layers of optimization. The chapter explores the pipeline concept, server-side WebAssembly, and the power of Rust and WebAssembly for server-side web apps. WebAssembly functions as a standalone computer with potential for various tasks.

Jonathan Katz, principal product manager at Amazon Web Services, discusses the evolution of PostgreSQL, including its expanded uses and the competition it faced. He highlights the new features of PostgreSQL 16, such as logical replication, and the long-term development of Direct I/O. Katz also talks about the importance of community involvement and shares his experiences with PostgreSQL in Amazon RDS, emphasizing its role in simplifying application development.

The backlash against the practice of 'shift left' in developer security is explored, as organizations face challenges in addressing vulnerabilities. Business logic vulnerabilities and attacks targeting the frontend are becoming more prevalent. Collaboration between development and security teams is emphasized, along with using DORA metrics to assess the impact of security efforts. The podcast also discusses the benefits of threat modeling and the challenges faced by front-end developers in ensuring security.

The podcast discusses operational resiliency and the role of AI and automation in achieving it. It explores boosting developer productivity through automation but also highlights the challenges it may create for operations. The importance of automating repetitive tasks in incident response is emphasized, along with the benefits of AI-powered platforms in streamlining incident handling. The significance of confidence, psychological safety, and organizational recovery in taking risks is also discussed.

Scott Johnston, CEO of Docker, talks about the evolving role of developers in architectural decision-making and tool development. He believes that integrating generative AI into the developer experience will drive business growth. Johnston downplays concerns about AI taking jobs, stating that it would alleviate repetitive tasks. He likens this evolution to expanding bike lanes in a city, leading to increased bike traffic. The demand for over 750 million apps in the next two years demonstrates the growing appetite for creative solutions from developers.

Technologists from AWS discuss the development of Powertools for AWS Lambda, which supports advanced use cases like workload safety and batch processing. Powertools reduces the need for code re-architecting and rewriting. The success of Powertools is attributed to its strong open source community, with 40% of new features contributed by the community. The community offers assistance in multiple languages and time zones. The podcast also highlights the value of open source and its impact on security.

KubeCon 2023 will showcase GenAI and Large Language Models (LLMs) focusing on security and integration. Platform engineering is on the rise, enhancing internal product teams and fostering product proliferation. WebAssembly gains significance in edge computing scenarios, complementing containers and enabling efficient data processing. These three trends will dominate discussions at KubeCon NA 2023, offering insights into the future of cloud-native technology.